Surviving the Horror of Amy: Salvation is Within Reach

PlayStation fans have been following the development of AMY for some time now and have been giving us tremendous support – we sincerely thank you for that. Others are just discovering this original upcoming PSN survival-horror game for the first time. What none of you have seen is the actual gameplay that lies at the heart of the game: the very unique relationship between Amy and Lana, our lead character.

When you mention ‘a very unique relationship’ in a video game, it may bring to mind ICO, a game that many of us consider a milestone in video game history. The recent re-release of the HD version by PlayStation brought back many memories for us. The first time you finished ICO, what remained was great emotional depth and a rare feeling of empathy for Yorda, the young woman you try to protect. Before playing ICO, the simple idea of protecting a non-playable character seemed tedious and dull. And yet, in ICO, you never had the feeling of doing a long escort mission. You really wanted to protect her.

In Amy, we didn’t try to ape ICO and the two games are quite different; each developer has its own references, world, and vision. But one thing is the same: the constant effort to create empathy for the secondary character. As Lana, a young woman in a city infested by zombies and monstrous creatures, you try to protect Amy, an 8-year old girl that doesn’t seem to talk. Lana is infected and fights against a virus that threatens to transform her into a mindless beast. Only Amy, unexpectedly, can temporary heal her so that they have to stand by each other.

The bond between the two characters is made visible by the way they look at each other, by the way one can protect the other, but also by the way they hold each other’s hand.

The hand that you take when you want Amy to follow you is at the heart of the game. In many occasions, it even means salvation in your extremely hostile environment: when holding Amy’s hand, you can hear her heart beat and you can even feel it (with a rumble controller). When she feels a close danger, you can be sure that fear is conveyed directly into your hand, especially when you know you’re about to fight a fierce enemy.

In the exclusive video we’ve just made, you can see how the two behave and cooperate with each other. Our core focus was to try to make you want to keep Amy safe. If you want to learn more about Amy, you can see our previous video about Lana’s infection here. Please check out our official site for more details and support us on Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Hi lisatsunami – If we sound like we’re comparing AMY to ICO, I need to apologize. This was not the purpose. Paul Cuisset, the author of Amy and of other games such as Flashback, has a lot of respect for Mr. Ueda’s work; the two games obviously don’t play in the same ground. What I was trying to say is that ICO and AMY are both based on the feeling of protection and that we tried to convey this feeling in our own way. Not mentioning ICO when releasing a game that enables you to hold a secondary character by the hand wouldn’t have been honest toward Mr. Ueda’s work and innovative feature.

Hi Tremulan777,
We’re sorry to keep you waiting and we understand that some of you can grow impatient. The good news is that we have delivered the final version of the game to Sony so that we should be able to announce a release date soon.
We understand this seems awfully long to you as it seems awfully short to us. And especially for a small indie team like us.
But if we spent all these months working sometimes about 14 hours a day without taking holidays or spending time with our families, if we invested so much time, effort and money, it’s because we strongly believe in the game and that the we’re trying to do something that has rarely be done on the PSN to date: delivering about 10 hours of unique gameplay experience that could be compared to a retail game experience a VERY reasonable price.
As for the non-exclusivity, we also have to reassure you: the PSN version is not a port of the XBLA version and is fully optimized for the PS3.
We hope that some of you guys will go on supporting us and if you’re part of them, we’d be pleased.

Game looks good, thanx for sharing the video. The narrator in the video needs to work on his delivery. It comes across (to me anyway) as though he is presenting the gameplay mechanics to children Amy’s age.

AMY looks great and has tons of potential but good lord I have never seen so much screen tearing in my life! It looks like the image is getting sliced every time there is movement. and definitely very noticeable. I can’t wait to play it nonetheless but hope the screen tearing can be ironed out.

We’re sorry for that. It’s an issue we discovered after we compressed the video and we decided to deliver it as such as it would have taken several days to redo another one and we know many of you were waiting for gameplay details. Thanks for your understanding.

@lisatsunami I don’t see why analogizing to something like ICO here calls for cojones. They’re not being necessarily boastful or braggy — they’re just showing (quite justifiably) similarities in gameplay elements and themes between the two games. It’s not like they’re saying “This is next-gen ICO” or something.

Looks fun but please tell me the controls aren’t like all those crappy Resident Evil games that came before 4 and 5. Those were the worst controls in gaming history. If I can use my analog to move left right forward and back by just pushing it that way i’m so totally in.

It seems like you guys are showing this game too early. The animations aren’t blending well, there are camera issues, the rooms look a lot like arted up white boxes, etc. All of this just gives the game a bad first impression. I can see that the ideas are good and it’ll eventually get there it’s just that most gamers might not understand and might just write it off as final game footage.

This game look interesting and looks very promisng. Heck, this game looks like what the next Silent Hill game would look like (speaking of Silent Hill, I would love Konami to have you develop a future Silent Hill title). Will this game support PS Move?? Also, are you planning to release this game in Japan also? I think people who love Resident Evil and survival Horror will like this also.

@ Thwip, I think the narrator does abit of hand-holding; but for a title that’s not released yet & w/ some gameplay mechanics we’re not so sure about yet… It’s understandable that his delivery is slow & follows the pace to the type of game this is. If the main character rushes out she will certainly die. This is a methodical game & I hope you can save at anytime. Auto-saving between check points may drive me crazy in this sort of game…

the concept of this is very intriguing, i like the idea that i noticed Amy with apparent super powers, so im amped. the lighting is incredible as well, and the main character can get infected if Amy is not around…sold. tell me more.

Day one buy for me on this game when it hits psn. Sony you guys need to put all the popular games on PSN for downlaod. I dont buy disc anymore so games like GT5, All the call of dutys, all the battlefields, Heavy rain, red dead redemption, all the uncharted, just cause 2 and god of war 3 get no love from me. I’m waiting for them to be on psn before I buy them or they stay in stores to me. I dont buy disc anymore it wears out blueray drives too fast and games run faster and better on downlaod. Plus I have 3 ps3’s and its better having the option to put that game on 5 different ps3’s than having one single blueray disc the family fights over sharing. Get the games on psn whats the hold up. I’m missing out!

Take your time guys its going to be awesome I just know it and I’m excited. Looks awesome from my end. I will buy this game day one I promise. I’ll buy it from my main ps3 plus account SLICK_T. I understand the hard work you developers go into making your games and I respect your taking your time to answer our questions means a lot to me and gives your team browny points from me to buy your games thats for sure lol. Take your time on your game and when it arrives I’ll be enjoying it. Have a wonderful thanksgiving team.

My comment never posted um I’ll try this again lol. This is a day one buy for me and I respect that you guys are taking your time replying to our comments. Your team take all the time you need and I’ll be excited when this masterpiece hits psn. Its sounding and looking awesome so far. I’m a supporter of you guys no negative rants from me lol. You guys have a wonderful thanksgiving and thanks for making a game like this for us. I understand the hard work you developers go through making these games and any wait is for a reason and people need to understand that. I do so take your time and again I cant wait to play it. Take care guys.

The more I see of Amy, the more I think it might be something really special. I like the idea of helplessness because you’re in this horror milieu with a small child – not with an RPG and a double-barreled shotgun.
Can’t wait to hear a release date. Really looking forward to it.

@ NASCAR-_-LEGEND, I admire that you avoid purchasing physical media. Still, the pricing/releasing structure is all wacked out. Retail games seem to take an undisclosed amount of time to to be available for digital release. COD- BO took a year (w/ no hint of a digital release until it was posted by Rey) & ME 2 had a simultaneous launch, which was awesome. Even Sony hasn’t really taken the initiative to release their 1st party games… like Uncharted 1. My guess is that it’s a size issue (games are huge) & perhaps a bandwidth cost issue. I don’t know how you can resist waiting for 99% of their titles to be digitized for release…:)

This game looks like it should be a physical copy to begin with….. I mean look at the graphics and the use of the dualshock controlers, its just incredible. The gameplay looks impressive as well and amy having superpowers. Looks like a day one to me, even if it was $60 for over 14 hours of gameplay. I hope to see some DLC in the future as well looking at how much potential this game has.

As soon as you guys reveal the release date I’m going to mark it on my calendar just to be safe :)

the first time I saw this I was like OMG that looks like a real horror/survivor game…but with that video you just post I’M SURE IT IS! ahah! I was hopping for a physical copy tho. I’ll get it even if it’s a downloadable game, but I kinda don’t like that… It reminds me a bit of the gameplay of clock tower like the atmosphere and the fact you can’t really fight maybe it’s not the case, but this kind of games is really stressful and I love it. I was looking for a game like that for a long time!

@ line 21! Sorry, I posted in wrong section/blog. Wow never done that, I bet these guys are like,!? What the heck is this person talking about lol. But since I’m here I did check out your post and I will say your game looks very cool. Are you guys gonna release a demo? If not at least some gameplay footage (final product) would be sweet. Thanks kemal :)

@Djamil, thank you for your reply. I was on AT&T 3G earlier, so did not view your video until I could get wi-fi. It looks pretty good. Reminds me more of the spooky tension in Aliens, where Ripley was trying to keep uh, forgot the girl’s name, safe, rather than ICO which was a gentle, mysteriously sweet vibe.

I will try your demo.

@19, SoraNeroSerrah, I had to laugh when I read your comment. You are so right. I tried to play RE 1 & 2, which were free, and I couldn’t get my character to make it around the room. The controls defied logic. I understand things were different back in the day, but I’ve played the old Tomb Raider PS1 games available on the PSN and even though very old, the games play pretty well. The graphics, however, understandablly stink on a huge HDTV.

I don’t want to put this game down without having played it first, but the only thing i find creepy about the game is the commentators voice. I seems very “scary” in the way Dead Space and Fear are “scary”. What i mean is it seems action oriented. Maybe true survival horror is just something only the 90’s could produce. The games that focused more on atmosphere and story rather game-play. But like i said, haven’t played it, wouldn’t know.

Like I said before, this game sounds interesting, but unless the name is changed from Amy to something else, I won’t be playing it. My ex wife’s name is Amy and I hate her more than anything else on this planet. Just her name alone makes me sick to the pit of my stomach…

I swear I almost got an anxiety attack when I saw that zombie suddenly appear in that part where he first talks about holding hands. I was already nervous when I noticed them being followed from a distance and then, BOOM! ZOMBEH! I can’t wait!